UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Berkeley, Calif. / Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Formerly housed in Mario Ciampi’s 1970 Brutalist icon, the University of California at Berkeley’s Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive—which make up the school’s visual arts center—are moving to a 1939 Art Deco printing plant wrapped in a sleek, zinc-panelled addition. Initial designs by Tokyo-based Toyo Ito, Hon. FAIA, called for the plant’s demolition, but were abandoned due to a prohibitive $150 million budget. New York–based Diller Scofidio + Renfro created a new $90 million scheme that preserved the existing building, combining old and new in what Charles Renfro, FAIA, calls “a very sartorial way.” The museum’s broad-ranging collection will inhabit the existing 10,800-square-foot plant; excavation of a new basement level will add a 12,500-square-foot gallery for light-sensitive art. The Pacific Film Archive will be housed in the 30,000-square-foot addition, which will include a theater, café, and film library. “We’ve found a middle ground between making highly expressive architecture and also a highly respectful vessel for art,” Renfro says. The museum and archive will open in 2015.